Obama sounds the alarm for clean energy

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President Barack Obama sounded the alarm on Tuesday as he made his push for more nuclear power in the U.S. energy mix — literally.

He toured an electrical workers union training center in Maryland before announcing the multibillion-dollar plan. During the tour, he talked to workers being trained in computer-assisted design, examined power management technology and fire alarm systems.

“You can pull one if you want,” Rhett Roe, a union member who has been teaching since 1985, told the smiling president as they stood before a wall filled with bright red alarm boxes.

Obama did, and flashing lights and loud beeping ensued. “I need this whenever the press is around,” Obama joked, as a horn blared.

The alarm system was for training and did not summon the fire department. Obama alluded to his experience again before making his announcement, with a nod to an earlier incident that might not have ended so happily.

“I was just mentioning that I got a chance to pull the first fire alarm since I was in junior high. And I didn’t get in trouble for it,” he said, to applause and laughter from the crowd.

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama looks at fire alarm systems while touring a training center at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26 Headquarters in Lanham, Maryland)

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Patricia Zengerle covers foreign policy and national security on Capitol Hill for Reuters. She recently covered the 2012 campaign and the White House and had been an editor in Washington, D.C., an editor in London, and a correspondent in Miami, Pittsburgh and New York. You can follow her on Twitter @ReutersZengerle